I recently was able to get away to the coast for the weekend.
We camped near Jenner, CA on the Russian River close to where it meets the Pacific Ocean.

Being an environmental campground, Willow Creek is a walk in.
Meaning we had to plan how much we wanted to have to pack from the car to the camp which could be up to a 1/2 mile hike to the further campsites.

I wanted to keep my gear simple. One camera with one lens, some batteries and that’s it.
Ample opportunities exist for both wildlife and landscape photography, small towns offer interesting architecture and people for travel/street photography.
An all in one (such as the Tamron 16-300) can be a nice option if you want to be prepared for all of these opportunities.

I decided to concentrate on wide landscape style pictures however and wanted a prime to further reduce weight, while having a fast aperture for hand-held shooting and background separation, if needed.
The Zeiss Touit 12mm (18mm equivalent) f/2.8 fit the bill nicely and I was able to borrow a copy for the trip. It has amazing image quality and the distortion is very well controlled for such a wide field of view.
Build quality is excellent and as you’d expect from Zeiss. As with most Fuji lenses, it also includes an aperture ring; making aperture adjustments an easy and tactile experience which I love.

I don’t own anything this wide, and it was really nice being able to capture so much of the environment, here are a few images from the trip:

Jenner Cafe

Wright’s Beach

Wright’s Beach

View from the campsite

Russian River Views

Point Arena Lighthouse

All in all, it was an amazing trip and the gear didn’t become a burden to carry while offering excellent image quality.